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Queen’s University researchers have solved one of the great mysteries surrounding a newborn’s first breath.

According to a news release from the university, a team of researchers from Queen’s has discovered how a key artery in a newborn’s heart constricts and eventually closes when the baby takes its first breath and adjusts to the shock of being born.

The discovery will give doctors new treatment options for problems such as blue babies, the release explained.

“Before birth, every human has a ductus arteriosus artery. When the ductus fails to constrict, it’s bad,” cardiologist Stephen Archer, who was recently appointed head of the Department of Medicine at Queen’s, was quoted as saying.

When a baby is born, the artery senses the high level of oxygen from the first breath and immediately constricts, allowing babies to breathe oxygen through their lungs rather than receiving oxygen from their mother’s placenta.

Archer and his team discovered the muscular layer of the ductus arteriosus is responsible for the constriction. Mitochondria — a part of a cell that produces energy — creates a signalling molecule that interacts with ion channels and enzymes to make the ductus constrict, the release detailed.

“That first breath is like turning on a metabolic furnace,” Archer said.

The study also discovered that the drug MDIVI-1 can stop the constriction — which could have clinical benefits because sometimes it is necessary to keep the ductus open in babies awaiting heart surgery.

According to the university, Archer has been working for the past 15 years trying to discover how the oxygen is sensed and how the constriction process in the ductus arteriosus artery works.

The study, conducted with collaborators from the University of Chicago and the University of Nebraska, has been published in the academic journal Circulation Research.